This week as we complete our brief look at light, to summarize last week's discussion, we could call illumination light, the interchange of truth and/or positive information by a number of means, including but not limited to verbal and written words, between two or more personalities.
I would say that was the illumination I received about 5AM last Wednesday when I had a specific dream about a friend I have not seen in over a year. Now, I know that person arrives at work at about that time and could have possibly been checking the email which contained the Chronicles of Diversity I sent out the previous evening.
While that dream wasn't specifically part of the three miracles I asked for prayer last week, it was an unspoken, and not understood uncertainty, of one of those areas. Put another way, it was an answer to prayer I really didn't think I needed to know. In this case God was the personal intermediary, making sure I got only the light I needed.
But then again this focuses on just how God uses each of us, in our strengths and weaknesses to accomplish His design for our lives. This is done many times through occurrences we personally are not aware of, or only know in part.
In that regard I was reminded of these following verses from Matthew Chapter 10. For I suppose this friend is not aware, that in the early days of writing these weekly installments, part of the motivation to keep on, even through times of discouragement, in part stemmed from our friendship and mutual respect.
And he who does not "take" (lambano, present tense) his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
"He who receives you receives (dechomai, present tense) Me, and he who receives (dechomai, present tense) Me receives (dechomai, present tense) Him who sent Me. He who receives (dechomai, present tense) a prophet in the name of a prophet shall "receive" (lambano, future tense) a prophet's reward. And he who "receives" (lambano, future tense) a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous (dechomai, present tense) man's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward. Matthew 10:38-42
Now until I studied these verses, I did not know the Greek word used in conjunction with "take his cross" is the same word (present tense) used in the following verses as receive (future tense). That word lambano is highlighted in the text above.
I think this illumination is worth noting for all of us because, the cross referred to is our own personal situation which we are able to carry only through obedience to Christ. But in that situation, our reward is based on a reward earned by another, again through obedience. If anything does not demonstrate the power of prayer, I don't know what can.
This week we will briefly look at natural light as part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Now this whole study is quite interesting and well beyond what we have space to utilize. Therefore we will just make a few comments in passing.
There is scientific evidence that in the past the earth's electromagnetic fields were much stronger than we presently measure. One possible explanation for that phenomenon is that the speed of light (electromagnetic energy) is not a constant, but is decaying in a fashion similar to radioactive elements. These factors would make the power of light energy vary, according to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, with the square of the light's speed, making the power available for creative construction, "In the beginning," essentially unlimited. This light principle could also account for the perceived age of the earth both naturally and in cosmology.
I would however, like to briefly focus upon the ability of our use of electromagnetic energy to carry information. This is a relatively recent development in human history. It really started with wires and the telegraph, then the telephone, then radio and television, but only in the last half of the twentieth century, did man develop the ability to use actual visible light for the transport of information. While that ability is still somewhat limited, our world today could not function without fiber optic cable and laser beams reading our CD's for our software and music.
For many years we have focused large radio telescopes into space to see if there "is intelligent life out yonder." What we have received is what we call random transmissions, which we use to justify our conclusions that there is no God. But the Bible says, and as we stated in an earlier message, this perfect randomness, is a much more difficult creation, than we would like to believe. Perfect chaos cannot happen by chance. Stated another way, just because we can't understand these signals does not mean they do not have a purpose, or contain useful or even necessary information.
Therefore, our own ontological arguments which create idols of our own genius, are really a powerful witness for the existence of God. We search the skies hoping for proof that chance is all there is, ignoring the fact that by that very search we prove, that random chance cannot exist without the creation of God, nor can our well ordered world.
I however, find a much more compelling argument for the existence of God not in physical stuff, but in the forces of continuing life. Turning from philosophy to cell physiology, one of the most amazing concepts I have ever encountered is named after a German born biochemist, Hans Krebs. The dictionary defines the Krebs cycle as, "a sequence of biochemical reactions occurring in cells that is part of the metabolism of carbohydrates to produce energy." You want to be overwhelmed with the complexity of all life, just check out your personal Krebs cycle in an encyclopedia or a cell physiology book.
While understanding the Krebs cycle will turn atheists and agnostics into theists, it doesn't make them Christians. One of the major problems, that I am personally now coming to grips with, is that the Bible really treats the existence of God as sort of a universal given. Yet the evangelical Christian church, especially in America, spends enormous resources, to argue for the existence of a God, when it is really a religious dispute, taken one way or the other, based on faith. I believe God exists, (a faith statement). I believe God does not exist (also a faith statement.)
Not only did Mr. Gibbons state that our philosophy did not demonstrate the validity of our own arguments, only the weakness of the assumptions of others, he also stated that when you pushed your opponent to the point of his or her faith, philosophy and religion reached their zenith, beyond which you could not venture in a meaningful discourse.
Light shows that God exists, so we get all excited like the cells in the leaves of the trees. Something that has happened all too infrequently in Seattle this spring. "We are going to make carbohydrate from the sun and our chlorophyll," say the excited cells of the leaves. I suppose in that light, you could say that those leaf cells, get pentecostal.
The joke aside, we too get excited when we see light falling on ourselves and others, but to the leaf, that is its purpose. Is that the same for mankind?
Outside the context of the Bible of Christianity, religious light is really not something to get excited about. For the knowledge of God without the redemption of God, offered in Jesus Christ, through His virgin birth, propitiatory atoning sacrifice, and His resurrection from the dead, brings no hope to man, or to fallen creation for that matter.
If this Jesus is the answer, why is it that the evangelical Christian church, can't for the most part, get the question right? The answer is that they know the Jesus of their own creation, or one they have been taught in their church. This Jesus may or may not be the Jesus Christ of the Bible.
I received an email forward from a friend last week. This article was written by a contemporary prophet and it concerned the new Jerusalem of Revelation Chapter 21. As I read this description, I at first found it amusing that this description of the new Jerusalem would fit very well with our Calvinist postmillennial brothers and sisters. But as I have thought about the article more, I see that the focus is on a future heaven, and not the present finished work of Christ on the cross of Calvary. In that respect it focuses on an idol destination.
Making the simple obtuse, it so focused on the eschatology of heaven, that it was of no earthly good. Now my goal is not to criticize this vision, but to point out that heaven, however you may define it is not the Good News. Our vision of heaven, does not free us from the bondage to ourselves and our personal justification. Jesus Christ came to redeem fallen mankind from our sin, and the difference between the church and the world is not our progressive sanctification, but Christ's imputed righteousness.
The answer to why the church has lost its potency in our culture, is it seeks only to answer the contemporary world's questions. In that philosophy or physiology it offers only a general direction and not a specific answer. One path among many. So why bother, especially when you have to tow the line of so much religious legalism. Getting back to where we started today, that is a cross I am unwilling and unable to bear.
But thanks to that cross of Jesus Christ, that he allows me to take (present tense), not only can I receive Him, but also His gifts of reception that succeed in the following verses above. These words, through God's design and the power of His Spirit, free me from the bondage to the circumstances of this world, even though I do not fully understand my role in them. They make my life a blessing to others, in ways I do not understand, and offer the promise that one day everything will be clear and the scales will be balanced. Perhaps, limited in this life, but surely in the life to come.
Last week I stated the need for three miracles. One of those miracles was touched upon in that dream last week, but was not really the ultimate solution. This article completes three years of publishing of this weekly message. Not only was my friend part of that early inspiration, so was the desire to obtain a floating retreat center. A ship named Diversity. Monday as I was on my walk, I again was impressed upon to do another internet search for that ship. To my amazement, I found one that perfectly fit that first desire. The link for that ship is at: http://www.marcon.com/main/marcon_st2.cfm?StoryID=203&Detail=1&file=PC12500
Now since we have been talking about the worldy way of doing things. The first priorty would be to find enough money by some means, to put together enough organizaition materials, to go out and kiss enough frogs and toads, until you find a prince. However, since Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, I shall retain that peace and see just how the Creator of the universe shall lead, and I shall do my best to follow in obedience to that leading. This is surely something that these last three years have "learned me mo' betta."
If this should be the vessel that God might provide, that would greatly contribute to the organizational and the financial miracles I sought last week. I have also seen progress on the personal miracle that is also required. Thank you for your prayers, please continue to intercede for these provisions.
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